Riverside High School is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

high school located in

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city in north east England **County Durham, a ceremonial county which includes Durham *Durham, North Carolina, a city in North Carolina, United States Durham may also refer to: Places ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. The principal of Riverside High is Dr. Gloria Woods-Weeks, who joined as principal in 2021. Current members of the school administrative team include Dr. Will Okun, Mr. Kwame Stith, Ms. Jasmine McKoy, and Mrs. Tammy Patterson. The school enrolls students from grades 9–12. The school was founded in 1991 and became one of the seven

Public High Schools.

History

Riverside High School opened in 1991 (the first class graduated in 1993) and currently enrolls approximately 1,700 students. It is one of seven high schools in the Durham Public School System. The school offers classes on a block schedule on a semester basis, with students taking 4 classes—generally 2 core and 2 elective—each semester. Riverside is an accredited school and is also home to the Durham Public Schools' engineering program, which uses the national Project Lead the Way curriculum. Riverside's sixteen sports teams are part of the PAC-6 Conference, which includes schools in Durham County and the neighboring counties of

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and

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. In 2017 the principal, Tonya Williams, proposed a "SMART Lunch" program where there is a single lunch period that is one hour long and students are free to attend certain clubs, replacing the former scheme where students are assigned to one of three lunch slots at different times in the school day. It was enacted in the fall of 2019. In summer 2023 Dr. Gloria Wood-Weeks after much deliberation with her administrative team and staff, rebranded Smart Lunch to become Pirate Block. The rationale of the rebranding is to provide more structure to all students and still allow them to participate in clubs as well as receive tutoring in classes. It features two lunch periods and highlights a different class period each day to allow an opportunity for each student to receive support in that class. During Pirate Block, students report to the featured class for that day. Attendance is taken and students are dismissed for lunch, dismissed to a club they have joined, or they begin with receiving tutoring from their teacher. While half the student body is at lunch the other half is participating in Pirate Block activities. The days are as follows: on Mondays first period is the featured class for Prate Block on Tuesdays and Wednesdays is second period, on Thursdays is third period, and on Fridays is fourth period. Pirate Block was enacted Fall 2023.

Achievements

In 2007, Riverside was ranked as the 834th high school in America by

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. In 2011, Riverside's Student Newspaper, ''The Pirates' Hook'', was awarded the best student run newspaper in North Carolina.

Athletics

Riverside High School sports teams are known as the Pirates. The school is a member of the

North Carolina High School Athletic Association The North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) is the governing organization of high school athletics in North Carolina, United States. The association maintains the official rule books and governs the officiating standards across ...

(NCHSAA).

Wrestling

The Riverside Pirate wrestling team has won a total of seven state championships. They were the 4A dual team state champions in 1995, 2002, 2003 and 2004, and were the 4A tournament team state champions in 1994, 2002 and 2004.

Volleyball

Riverside's girls volleyball program has won two state championships, winning the class 4A title in 1998 and 2001.

Notable alumni

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, writer, director, and comedian * Jeffrey Gunter,

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linebacker * Mary Katharine Ham, journalist, senior writer at

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contributor, and former

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contributor * Chef Henny, rapper *

Megan Hodge Megan Hodge Easy (born October 15, 1988) is an American indoor volleyball player who won a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics with the US team and played for Pennsylvania State University's volleyball team. Following college, also played ...

, indoor volleyball silver medalist at the

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* Anthony King, writer, director, and comedian *

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, NFL defensive end *

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, Broadcast Meteorologist at WMAR-2 NEWS. Former Meteorologist at WKYT-TV *

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, former American football

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who competed in the

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division in the

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References

{{authority control Public high schools in North Carolina Durham Public Schools Schools in Durham County, North Carolina 1991 establishments in North Carolina Educational institutions established in 1991